Computer systems are becoming increasingly pervasive in our society, including everything from small handheld electronic devices, such as personal data assistants and cellular phones, to application-specific electronic devices, such as set-top boxes, digital cameras, and other consumer electronics, to medium-sized mobile systems such as notebook, sub-notebook, and tablet computers, to desktop systems, workstations, and servers. A cell phone is a particularly useful computer system that provides a convenient way not only for users to be contacted but also for users to contact others.
Cell phones rely on a network of cell towers to provide wireless services. Each tower typically serves a coverage area referred to as a cell. Generally, as a user moves away from a first cell tower of a first cell, the wireless signal strength may decrease until the user moves into a second cell and moves toward the second tower serving the second cell. Occasionally, a user may move into a region that either lacks wireless signal coverage or provides very weak wireless signal strength. This may occur when, for example, a cell tower is malfunctioning, no cell tower exists to cover a particular area, or the wireless signal is somehow obstructed. Regions such as these may be referred to as holes or dead zones.
The probability that the wireless connection may be lost between the cell phone and the cell tower increases when the cell phone user (and, hence, the cell phone itself) passes through a hole. This can result in dropped calls. The present invention addresses this and other problems associated with the prior art.